The year: 1969. Karsanbhai Patel, the son of small-time farmer from Ruppur, Gujarat, tries his hand at making phosphate-free detergent powder out of a small shed in Saraspur, an Ahmedabad suburb. A chemist in a government lab, Patel’s entrepreneurial instincts drive him to moonlight for work that would soon become his real professional calling: making a low-cost detergent. When it came to giving a name to his labor of love, Patel decided to call it Nirma (after his daughter Nirupama), a brand which today commands a value of Rs.4,840 crore and nestles under its fold an array of consumer products ranging from cosmetics, soaps, detergents, salt, soda ash and injectibles among others. Along the way, the Nirma brand name has become almost synonymous with low-priced detergents and toilet soaps. “If marketing is all about finding the gaps and filling them, Karsanbhai Patel and his Nirma brand scored a perfect slam dunk,” says an independent market analyst.

Once the mixture was ready, Patel packed them in polythene bags and sold it door-to-door. This way he was able to sell about 15 to 20 packets a day on his way to the office on bicycle, some 15 km away. Playing by the wisdom of the popular maxim – ‘the product should be available within an arm’s length of the desire’, Patel recruited local housewives to sell his product. Once the product started garnering name and sales, he started to look to expanding his distribution network. The product’s sales were steadily climbing and soon the Nirma brand was selling everywhere in Gujarat, in little shops round street corners and even in the remotest villages. Soon, the Nirma brand came to be well accepted in Gujarat and neighboring parts of Maharashtra. Patel, meanwhile began diligently cultivating the low-to-medium consumer pockets – a whole new consumer segment for detergent category. It was a massive market segment that was starving for a good-quality detergent at an affordable price.

Gradually, Nirma began to spread its footprint from the neighboring markets to more deeper recesses of the domestic market. Its handmade detergent packets had a price tag of Rs.3 per kg, which was one-third of the lowest priced popular detergents then. Eventually, this strategy helped him to make a fortune from the volumes. For hardscrabbled homemakers struggling to balance their monthly budgets, the product was a boon. At the time, detergent and soap markets were dominated by multinational corporations with products like Surf by Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever). They were priced above Rs.13 per kg, which was out of the reach of the majority of middle class homemakers. Seizing the opportunity, Patel kept his margins very low, and was happy to get anything between three and five percent, a strategy that helped him conquer a big share of the detergent market. In less than ten years, Nirma became the top selling detergent in India. “Nirma came in the market when brand energy was missing and it did wonders in the bottom segment of the market, on the simple philosophy of giving value products at an affordable price,” says Harish Bijoor, CEO, HarishBijoor Consults. When Nirma washing powder was making a name for itself in the low-income market, HLL reacted in a way typical of many multinational companies. Senior executives were dismissive of the new product: “That is not our market. We need not be concerned.” Nirma’s marketing strategy at the time was to target its products at non-users of Surf. This way, it was able to avoid the attention of HLL while continuing to grow at a frenetic pace. By the mid Eighties, Nirma moved ahead of Surf to capture a large market share. When finally HLL executives were jolted into action to take a closer look at the low-income market, Nirma washing powder had become one of the most popular household detergents in many parts of the country. The achievement was all the more special for the company’s founder who had once said: “Nirma is not merely a...

YOU MAY ALSO FIND THESE DOCUMENTS HELPFUL

...﻿A
PROJECT REPORT ON
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
OF
NIRMA
PRESENTED BY Manoj Bhalani (12MBA006)
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Ms. Kinjal Mistri
Ms. Komal Shukla
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF THE COURSE “SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES”
OF
SEMESTER- III MBA
PROGRAMME (2012-14)
SUBMITTED TO
INDUKAKA IPCOWALA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT (I2IM) CHAROTAR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (CHARUSAT)
CHAROTAR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (CHARUSAT)
FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES (FMS) INDUKAKA IPCOWALA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT (I2IM) MBA/PGDM 2012-14
SEMESTER III
DECLARATION
I Manoj Bhalani (12MBA006), student of the two- year MBA Programme at Indukaka Ipcowala Institute of Management (I2IM) hereby declare that this report as a part of the course “Contemporary Issues in Management (MB 805.1) is the result of my own work. I also acknowledge the other works / publications cited in the report.
Place: Changa
(Signature)
Date: 17.06.2013 (Name of the student)
COMPANY INTRODUCTION
Nirma is one of the few names - which is instantly recognized as a true Indian brand, which took on mighty multinationals and rewrote the marketing rules to win the heart of princess, i.e. the consumer.
Nirma, the proverbial ‘Rags to Riches’ saga of Dr. Karsanbhai Patel, is a...

...of success."(Karsanbhai Patel, CMD, Nirma Ltd.)
No one had known that the Person who started the Journey of Nirma for side income One Day it will become a big competitor, hard to be beaten in the market of homogenous products.
Backward Integration has been a great phenomena for most of the small companies to consolidate and expand their market position. Videocon is another success story which followed the same back integration by buying Thompson Picture tubes company to gate economy of scale and sustain its growth while most of the companies who were in market along with Videocon lost their sheen later like BPL, market leader once due to price they quoted and moreover were unable to control quality of the supplied products. It’s a good lesson for India. Actually the great success story, one thing that made Karsanbhai Patel a successful person that was his clear vision of his strength that is a good knowledge of chemical. Most of the people could not discover his strength and get failure. The story of Nirma has become a classic marketing case study.
Challenging established multinationals needs extreme courage and to win in the long run needs marketing foresight. Karsanbhai Khodidas Patel, once a government servant with the knowledge and experience as a chemist offered a good product and was aggressive in marketing strategy. He made the multinationals to follow Nirma and introduce substitutes such as...

...is that the rural
consumers will only buy really cheap mass market brands. But the stark reality is that
though brands like Nirma lead, but penetration of premium products has also been
observed even to the lowest SEC. The percentages may be very small, but given the
large universe, the actual figures may be significant
Thus when we are aware of the fact that brands like Nirma rule the rural market, it
would be interesting to study and analyse their basic marketing inputs -----the 4P”s
1
NIRMA
About the Company
Nirma is the Rs.17 billion Detergents, Soaps and Personal Care Products Brand, a
market leader in the Indian detergent market and
second largest in bathing soaps... the brand NIRMA being one of the world's biggest in
it's segment... a result of it's mission to provide 'Better Products, Better Value, Better
Living'.
The man who altered the clothes-washing habits of the Karsanbhai Patel
the chairman of the Ahmedabad-based Nirma Ltd. This chemist who manufactured
detergents at home in Ahmedabad in 1969 has certainly come a long way. He worked
from his backyard which developed into a soap factory, cycled to retail outlets and
hawked his brand at one-fourth of the price of similar products then available. At Rs 6,
Nirma, named after his daughter, was the cheapest detergent vying for attention on shop
shelves. By the late 1980s, Nirma had...

...﻿Case Assignment 1 (23rd September, 2014)
Due: 15th October 2014 in class
Centre for the Arts (Case 6 in the case book)
Case Questions: (You do not have to answer them in Q&A format. Please read the note: “How to write an analysis of a case”)
1. As Erin White, what recommendations would you make that might result in achieving break even for the scheduled Halo performance?
2. As Erin White, what recommendations would you make to improve seat revenue for the following two theatrical performances?
3. As Debbie Slade, what role do you think theatrical performances should play in future programs? Explain.
4. What should Debbie Slade do?
Guidelines
Please read the note “ How to write an analysis of a case”
Cases will be evaluated as if teams are in a work situation and have been given the responsibility by senior management to analyze a marketing related business situation and to develop recommendations for the business.
Generally, cases will be graded on the following criteria:
• Quality of analysis
• Application of marketing and business terminologies/ theory
• Adherence to the requirements
All cases, unless otherwise specified, are to be submitted typewritten (letter quality). 12 pts. Times New Roman, 1.5 spaces on 8 ½ x 11 inch white paper with one inch margins. Only stapled hard copies will be accepted. Maximum 6 pages (excluding exhibits).
Teams...

...Abstract
Cold case investigation is a growing concern due to increased numbers of unsolved cases and pop culture appeal. This paper will walk you through what a cold case investigation is, how one begins, and factors such as the use of volunteers can effect the outcome of a cold case investigation. Each year the number of unsolved cases in the U.S. goes up, but with limiting funding and lack of manning something has to be done to keep the numbers down. A dedicated cold case unit is the best answer to this problem.
Cold Case Investigation
Approximately one-third of all homicides in the United States are not cleared within the first year of being committed. These cases are dubbed cold cases after active investigation has been terminated for any of several reasons. If investigators lose the trail or cannot come up with enough evidence, witnesses, or a suspect the case may be closed. More important or high publicity cases may become a priority and with lack of a trail a case is closed. These cases can be placed on a back burner until time and manning is available to conduct a more thorough investigation and continue where previous investigation left off. The low clearance rate has also been attributed to the number of experienced...

...Case management
Objective:
The court has a duty to actively manage cases pursuant to rule 25(rule of civil procedure 2000)…..
what is the overriding objective of managing cases?
* (1) These Rules are a new procedural code with the overriding objective of enabling the court to deal with cases justly.
* (2) Dealing with a case justly includes, so far as is practicable –
* (a) ensuring that the parties are on an equal footing;
* (b) saving expense;
* (c) dealing with the case in ways which are proportionate –
* (i) to the amount of money involved;
* (ii) to the importance of the case;
* (iii) to the complexity of the issues; and
* (iv) to the financial position of each party;
* (d) ensuring that it is dealt with expeditiously and fairly; and
* (e) allotting to it an appropriate share of the court’s resources, while taking into account the need to allot resources to other cases.
Application by the court of the overriding objective
1.2
The court must seek to give effect to the overriding objective when it –
(a) exercises any power given to it by the Rules; or
(b) interprets any rule subject to rules 76.2, 79.2 and 80.2.
Duty of the parties
1.3
The parties are required to help the court to further the overriding objective.
Court’s duty to manage cases
1.4
(1) The court must further the...

...UNDERSTANDING THE CASE PROCESS
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this section is to help you to understand what a case is and how you, as a student of business, can more effectively prepare your answers and benefit from a case discussion.
The material covered in this section includes:
1. Understanding what a case is.
2. Reading a case effectively.
3. Analysing and preparing for a case discussion.
4. Reporting your case findings.
5. Discussing the case.
1. Understanding what a case is.
Socrates, the teacher-philosopher, used questions rather than statements of fact, to lead his students through the reasoning process. As a student we can try and help you learn in several ways, and the case approach does much the same thing that Socrates did by asking questions. You, as the student, are not told the answer to a problem, but will have to build your own solution. This is a type of active learning where your instructor will guide you in your case discussion to the point at which you discover the solution for yourself.
So cases are a problem-solving situation. You are given a story, based on a real business situation, and then you are asked questions or posed a problem based on the situation outlined in the case. Some cases are short, and focused on a very...